I remember loving the song "C'est Si Bon" so much as a kid. I also remember
how one line "Qui me donne le frisson" was usually translated as "It sends a
shiver down my spine" or even taken out of the song altogether. The latter
phrase certainly doesn't capture the moment at all. It's more than a chill
down your spine; c'est si bon!

From: Rebecca King (rebeccaATneronewjersey.com)
Subject: Frisson

A frisson is also the nipple on which a cap is placed on certain styles of
muzzle-loading guns. The hammer hits the frisson and the cap provides the
starting explosive charge which sets off the main charge of powder in the
barrel of the gun. I have no doubt that the term comes from the same word,
as firing a muzzle-loading rifle is certainly a sudden (and loud) event.
It's amazing where you can find interesting words!

An interesting simile to carte blanche, used in architecture and other design
fields, is tabula rasa or "blank slate". In this case it is meant to imply
that there are no preexisting restrictions on the possible outcome of a
design problem. This is often used to describe the approach of early Modern
architects who proposed that buildings and cities should be built for the
present and future, without the restriction of historical precedent. The
French architect Le Corbusier is a famous example of this methodology.

My favorite use of carte blanche is by Georgette Heyer, who practically
invented the Regency Romance genre. Heyer regularly uses carte blanche to
mean "an offer by a gentleman that includes living under his protection,
but not marriage", as noted by the Heyerlist website.
I don't know whether this was an
actual meaning of the term in Regency England, but I'd like to think so.

Because I have lived in France since de Gaulle was president (1967), I am
particularly happy to see you're giving us some terms from the French language.
Over the almost 40 years I've been here (I am now 85), I have seen the
French language evolve quite rapidly toward English, much to the chagrin of
some of our French bureaucrats.

But with the lightning growth of technology, it's been almost inevitable.
Still, they, the French, stick to certain peculiarities and refuse to adapt.
For instance, the whole world says "fax", but the French insist upon
"tÚlÚcopie". Every other country uses the term email, but the French prefer
to stay with "courriel". I know of no country except France that doesn't
refer to "software" -- they insist on "logiciel". And yet, they don't seem
to acknowledge the hundreds of French terms in our English language,
coup d'Útat, carte blanche, bureau, rouge ... it would take hundreds of pages
to list them all.

But France is a great and proud country whose language was the lingua franca
in the 19th century, and they can't let go of that! These remarks are NOT a
criticism of France. I LOVE this country and am happy to be here. But I am
still American, and am embarrassed, like the rest of the world, at whom we
have allowed in the current White House!

The memo from Carolyn Makovi refers to Tennyson's "In Memoriam" as being
written on the death of his father when in fact it was written on the death
of his friend Arthur Hallam, with whom it is speculated he was in love.

Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it. -Christopher Morley,
writer (1890-1957)